The war referendum plan, popular within the United States from 1914 and especially in the 1920s and 1930s, {1} appeared during the Vietnam war in its familiar form of a proposed constitutional amendment. John Rarick, (Democrat -Louisiana), Robert L. Leggett (Democrat - California), and Parren J. Mitchell (Democrat -Maryland) introduced such a proposed amendment April 1, 1971. They called it the People Power over War Amendment, and they used the exact text of the earlier Ludlow Amendment. The latter was before Congress, under Representative Louis Ludlow's sponsorship, from 1935 to 1941. Ludlow was a former Washington correspondent for a large number of newspapers and then served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives for the Indianapolis district for twenty years. Another supporter of the war referendum proposal during the Vietnam era was Mark Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies. He was a leader of the New Left {2} and an antiwar voice during the Vietnam period. He now teaches at George Washington University. When reminded in 1998 of his 1971 efforts for the war referendum, he recalled the proposal but acknowledged that it was not a major activity within his overall antiwar efforts.

Related to the renewed interest in the war referendum proposal were several examples of war referendum projects. For example, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) organized a national campus referendum on the question of leaving Vietnam in 1970. YAF was an organization of college-aged conservatives, and the Nixon administration assisted it in getting out a "No" vote in the referendum. There was an earlier referendum in Dearborn, Michigan in 1966 in which 41 percent of those questioned favored an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal from Vietnam. In 1967, similar referenda in Cambridge and San Francisco registered 40 percent in favor of withdrawal.

TEXT OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

SEC. 1. Except in the event of an attack or invasion the authority of Congress to declare war shall not become effective until confirmed by a majority of all votes cast thereon in a Nation-wide referendum.

SEC. 2. Whenever war is declared the President shall immediately conscript and take for use by the Government all the public and private war properties, yards, factories, and supplies, together with employees necessary for their operation, fixing the compensation for private properties temporarily employed for the war period at a rate not in excess of 4 percent based on tax values assessed in the year preceding the war.

Source: Congressional Record, 92d Congress, 1st session, pp. 9052-53, 9065 (April 1, 1971)

{1} "The Ludlow Amendment and Fortress Defense," pp. 152-185, in Ernest C. Bolt Jr., Ballots before Bullets: The War Referendum Approach to Peace in America, 1914-1941. (1977) The text of the Ludlow Amendment is on pp. 173-174, and the People Power over War Amendment is briefly noted on p. 189.

{2} New Left: term coined by sociologist C. Wright Mills for youth movement in 60s. Both old and new left reflected socialist views, the former going back to the 1930s. New Left voices expressed more disillusionment about Soviet communism and Western democracy, and they wanted more focus on social and economic policies and issues at home -- less focus on international events. But by the mid-60s they had turned their focus more on Vietnam. Students who were more affluent, middle-class, urban and surburban reacted against 50s America (the time of their childhood) and wanted to be more activist than they perceived their parents to have been. The New Left was active in the civil rights movement before and during Vietnam. But its greater antiwar efforts and debates over tactics (militancy) tore the movement apart.

Though not strictly an indication of interest in the war referendum idea or proposal, polling by the Gallup Organization became over time another indicator of rising United States' popular dissent and antiwar sentiment. The following table presents evidence of this picture.

Source: William L. Lunch and Peter W. Sperlich, "American Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam," Western Political Quarterly, 32 (March 1979), p. 25.

All figures presented are from Hazel Erskine, "The Polls: Is War A Mistake?" Public Opinion Quarterly 34 (Spring 1970): 141-21, and Gallup Opinion Index, numbers 56, 59, 61, 69, and 73.